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Friday, April 12, 2013

Fishy Frown for Kermit Gosnell

Fahaka Puffer will KEEL you.

... And the CBC, CTV, MSNBC, and probably a few other news publishing and distribution services.

I had to find out about this by the proxy of Cam Wollner, and even then, it was an oblique reference that I only clicked because I have a "let's see what (insert political designation here) is mad about this week" reflex that moves faster than my brain does.

What am I mad about? I'll tell you what I'm mad about. I'm mad about abortion, and not your typical kind - The Atlantic has the details. Details which, by the way, are graphic, so if you're squeamish a minor, or otherwise incapable of processing inputs other than sunshine and rainbows, don't click through the link.

Now, if anyone's seen me writing about anything, you usually see me hedging my bets on abortion - I can argue one side of the argument from morality, and the other side of the argument from legality, and in the middle I usually pull a truly fantastic stunt invoking the "spirit of centrism" while beating back demands to take a side with screams of "False Dichotomy, False Dichotomy!", all while standing atop my computing chair and beating back the angry mob on the other side of the screen using my tetsubo tea-pot.

I don't have a stance on abortion, beyond saying I am not nearly qualified or well-educated enough to make any sort of call on the matter. I have personal ethics regarding the practice, but like all personal ethical decisions, I have no real need to share them, nor indeed, any real authority to lobby for their application by everyone. Anyone who's known me in real life knows I'm about as far from a moral authority as you can get without simultaneously working in the porn industry and the drug trade all at once.

What I do have, however, is a stance on medical practice. It shouldn't really surprise you - American media has done everything they can to make it the "issue of our time" through its coverage, again and again, of the watered-down, half-baked excuse for a medical system the USA has and the changes that were made to it since my leaving high school.

I do, however, believe fairly strongly in the idea that doctors should have ethics. I believe those ethics should include a general purpose right to life and an obligation to take the best course of action for the safety and security of their patients. In that regard I suppose I support bans on late term abortion, where and when "late term" is listed as whatever time after which the fetus is actually viable as a separate entity from the mother - the figure I usually hear is 48 weeks. Ultimately, that whole argument hinges on the concept of person-hood, and being a person who considers his fish people, but some of his co-workers automatons at best and animals at worst, I'm definitely not the person you want deciding who gets to be people.

But now we're digressing.

So, Doctor Kermit Gosnell and the rest of his staff at his clinic in Pennsylvania gets a big, evil fishy frown for completely disregarding all those medical ethics like patient safety, not being racist, and generally just being good, decent folk who are trying to help people to help them, instead of getting more tinder for the fire American Money to line their pockets.

Why am I yelling at all of my favourite news outlets? I already told you - I had to learn of this through Cam. I won't recount the full details of the story - The Atlantic deserves every hit possible just for being the first to break it - but suffice it to say, if it were my world?